[pkg-fso-maint] Bug#520902: wicd: breaks non-wireless configured interfaces when installed

[Luca Capello]

Ciao Davide!

Please keep the pkg-fso-maint@ mailing list cc:ed, TIA.

On Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:57:20 +0100, David Paleino wrote:
> On Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:37:36 +0100, Luca Capello wrote:
>> wicd has been choosen to be the default WiFi manager on Debian on the
>> Openmoko FreeRunner.  Since I am working to solve bug #520014 [1], I
>> tried to install it without fulfilling its dependencies and I got an
>> IMHO completely unrelated error.
>> 
>> [1] http://bugs.debian.org/520014
>
> Yes, I'm aware of that bug, and am going to reply to it right after this
> mail. :)

FWIW, I am already working on it, but since you mentioned wicd 1.6, I
will check to see if there is progress WRT udhcpc before going on with
my work.

>> BTW, the severity of this bug is important, but I consider it to be more
>> than that, especially in such situations (like on the Openmoko FR) where
>> you are working remotely, since you lost the connection to the device.
>
> Agreed. However I don't have much time during the weekdays and, unfortunately,
> I'll be at a GNU/Linux meeting this other weekend, so.. I don't believe I could
> put my hands on wicd before two weeks :(. Also, there's a high chance that wicd
> 1.6 gets released in this timeframe, if it's the case, I'll ask you to
> reproduce the bug (I don't have an Openmoko FR :(), since 1.6 code has changed
> quite a bit.

Will do.

>> debian-gta02:~# dpkg --force-all
>> -i /var/cache/apt/archives/wicd_1.5.9-5_all.deb
>
> Next time please try not to wrap lines ;)
> However, this seems related to #520014. I'll reply to the proper
> report.

This is not a bug at all, since I need --force-all to override wicd
dependencies.

>> First problem: why wicd wants to manage the usb0 interface?  It is *not*
>> a WiFi interface (read the whole mail before replying to this point)
>> nor, according to /usr/share/doc/wicd/README.Debian, it is listed as
>> "usable" in /etc/network/interfaces:
>> 
>> [..]
>> 
>> Indeed, the /etc/network/interfaces for my FR contains more than that:
>
> On a side note: is that managed by anything FR-specific?

No, it is like this because you want the USB networking to be always on,
thus you can *always* SSH into the FR as soon as you plug in the USB
cable (and, obviously, your laptop/desktop is properly configured).
Actually, IIRC the FreeSmartphone.Org framework daemon (in short,
fso-frameworkd) provides a way to switch the USB mode from network to
USB mass storage device, but I have never used that.

>> =====
>> # /etc/network/interfaces -- configuration file for ifup(8), ifdown(8)
>> [..]
>> 
>> # Ethernet/RNDIS gadget (g_ether)
>> # ... or on host side, usbnet and random hwaddr
>> allow-hotplug usb0
>> iface usb0 inet static
>
> I have a similar interface (eth0, static IP, [..]) on my laptop, and wicd works
> fine with that. I'll continue reading :)

We are talking about wicd *installation* time, not runtime.  Once wicd
is installed, everything works fine.  I have never tried on my laptop,
but I will bet the error would be the same, again when *installing* wicd.

>> The correct behavior should be to check each interface status and act
>> accordingly.  This however *only* for the interfaces the admin wants to be
>> managed by wicd: in my case, it is clear that usb0 does not belong to this
>> group (and IIRC network-manager would skip it).
>
> Why should it skip it? Because it is declared as "static" in interfaces(5)? As
> already said, I have a static eth0 configured there, and wicd works fine with
> it. I don't think it should skip those, and if it would, the host could then
> have multiple connections active? (i.e. the static skipped ones and the
> wicd-managed one) -- wicd doesn't currently support that, and if needed, I'll
> talk with upstream for its implementation.

Let me clear here: all these network/connetion managers (thus
network-manager, wicd, etc.) should do only what I ask them to do.  If I
want one interface to be managed by them, well, the solution
network-manager adopted seems to be the best one: the interface should
be listed as "auto" in /etc/network/interfaces or not listed at all.
According to /usr/share/doc/wicd/README.Debian, I thought wicd behaves
the same, which is not the case.

This is another bug, which however comes before the one in the subject:
if wicd just skips everything I manually configured, then I would not
have experienced the bug in the subject.

Thx, bye,
Gismo / Luca
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